Friends of the Earth Colombia Organizes Meeting on Extractivism, Conflicts and Resistance

The advance of the neoliberal model in the global South as a result of the international division of labor, which leads countries with natural richness to return to producing primary commodities, has caused socio-environmental conflicts. These are the main concern of organizations and social movements.

CENSAT-Friends of the Earth Colombia and Movimiento Rios Vivos are organizing an international seminar on this issues in Bogota.

The event, called “Extractivism, conflicts and resistance” will be streamed live on Real World Radio.

The expansion of the extractive borders in Latin America, as well as in other parts of the world, increase the territorialization of capitalism while it displaces ethnic groups, peasant communities and urban dwellers from their communities. In the past years, the concept of financialization of nature has emerged as a result of the attempts to increasingly commodify life and to turn the planet into a commodity for capitalist accumulation . This has been closely linked with the ‘green economy’ and ‘corporate environmental governance’ proposals.

Maria Pinzon, of CENSAT-FoE Colombia said that leaders of communities resisting extractive projects, such as gold mining, coal and hydroelectric dams, will participate in the event, which will also focus on agribusiness and monoculture plantations, such as agrofuels.

She added that based on this, they will debate on the ‘dematerialization’ of capitalist economies in Latin America.

The seminar is the right space to discuss about the different forms of extractivism in Colombia, to talk more about the conflicts emerging as a result of it and current resistance to these projects.

The seminar will take place from December 4 to 6 and it will streamed live by Real World Radio through Ustream.